Courtesy Williams Sports Information

HARWICH, Mass. - The Williams College baseball team won its second game in a 12-hour span Thursday night, defeating Western New England College, 3-1, to remain alive in the NCAA Division III New England Regional. Williams is scheduled to face top-seeded Wheaton Friday at 12 p.m. back at Whitehouse Field in another elimination game. Wheaton lost a 6-3 decision to Keene State Thursday.

The Ephs improved to 27-9 with the victory. Earlier in the day, they had staved off elimination with a 12-7 win over St. Joseph's (Maine). WNEC finishes its season with a 28-12 record.

"I told our guys after the game (the 3-1 win over WNEC) that I thought we had just played our best game of the season," Williams head coach Bill Barrale said. "Ben was great on the mound and so was Sam Tuttle, we played error-free baseball and we continued to hit the ball well. Our guys have been playing loose all year, and I think that helped today -- and tonight."

Sophomore lefty Ben Horwitz shut down the Golden Bears for the first five innings, allowing just four hits and no runs. He hooked up with WNEC right-hander Mike Richardson in a classic pitcher's duel for those frames.

"For two games now he's kept those guys off balance," Eph senior Sean Gleeson said of Horwitz. "For us, Ben coming out and throwing some zeros up on the scoreboard was huge because the way we've been hitting, we knew we could score some runs."

His teammates broke open the scoreless tie in the top of sixth inning. James DiCosmo led off by punching an opposite-field single through the left side and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Senior Chris Kenney then sent a soft liner over the shortstop's head and into center field. DiCosmo raced home on the play, diving headfirst into the plate as Kenney advanced to second. After Paul Morgan flew out to center field, Gleeson caught hold of a two-strike offering and crushed it over the fence in left despite a forceful breeze for a two-run home run and a 3-0 Williams lead.

"With two strikes, I was just looking for a pitch I could make some good contact with," Gleeson said. "He kind of hung one, and I kind of willed it out. Ryan (Fote) had hit a shot out there earlier and it just died in the wind, so when I hit it, I thought it was going to be caught."

Western New England got a run back in its half of the sixth, but could have had more. Horwitz wiggled out of a second and third with no one out jam by inducing an RBI-groundout, a strikeout and a groundout to third.

Horwitz found himself in trouble again in the seventh as the first two batters singled, but again retired three straight batters to escape the jam. He allowed seven hits over seven innings and just one run. He walked two and struck out eight on the night.

Williams closer Sam Tuttle came on for the final two innings and struck out WNEC's Chris Newell with runners on first and third and two outs in the bottom of the ninth to earn his sixth save of the season.

At the plate, Williams banged out 13 hits, giving them 31 on the day. Kevin Flynn was 3 for 4 while Kenney and DiCosmo had two hits each. For WNEC, Josh Jacobs, Garrison Ward and Tom Horgan each had two hits.